John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – After returning to the criminal underworld to repay a debt, John Wick discovers that a large bounty has been put on his life.

My Take – The original 2014 film was a great surprise mainly as it really blew most of the film going public away, concentrating on tight action and creating a cool world to explore. The film accomplished what Hong Kong action flicks did nearly a quarter-century ago, by seducing a bloodthirsty audience into appreciating an exquisitely choreographed modern ballet of hand to hand combat along with gun blazing stunts. The plot was quite simple as it began with someone killing the titular character’s dog, and ended with the vengeance-bent former assassin stealing a new best friend from an animal shelter, after dropping 76 (or more) dead bodies along the way. The film, which launched the directorial careers of Keanu Reeves stunt doubles in The Matrix films, Chad Stahelski & David Leitch (who has now moved on to the thriller The Coldest City & the superhero sequel Deadpool 2), succeeded not on the strength of its story, but on the elegance of its action. The wonderful film where the killings were done so brutally nearly reminded me of the various enjoyable one man army movies in the 80s played by Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the film was designed to be a sequel, the grand success of the film for obvious reasons (money) spawned a sequel sans co-director David Leitch. Hence, the bigger surprise comes when you realize that this film does what most sequels fail to do subtly, be bigger & better while living up to the name of the original. It takes everything you enjoyed about the previous film to a whole other level of excitement and fun. I found this film to be an improvement over the last installment when it came to the nonstop action sequences, more strategic gun shoot outs, and a thrilling car chase. Although in term of story, there is a bit of a more complexity in the sequel as opposed to the simplicity of the original film and while it reaches at times to justify its own existence, this film also boasts a reunion with Keanu’s Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne. There’s something beautiful about the scope, the choreography and the thrill of this film’s violence, you just can’t get enough of it and of course the customarily denounced Keanu Reeves is relentless.

The story follows former assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) also known as the boogeyman right after the events of the 1^st film. Settling into his newly re-earned retirement after taking out the entire Russian mob in New York City, John spends the day recuperating and playing with his dog (who he picked up at the end of the original). That is, until Wick has a favor called in by way of a Marker, a sacred oath of the High Table by Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), who shows up at John’s house ordering the reluctant Wick to un-retire (again) and assassinate the only person standing between Santino and a seat at the High Table, his sister Gianna D’Antonio (Claudia Gerini), who has been gifted control of their operations by their dying father. Unexpectedly, John refuses and as Santino and his security force led by Ares (Ruby Rose) start to leave, Santino unloads a grenade launcher and blows up John’s house. Now that he’s homeless, John heads toward the city with his dog to and checks into the continental to plan his next move. However things get way more complicated when John is left to fend for himself with a $7 million contract on his head and with assassins in all forms & corners begin to attack him, he must do what he is best at – kill them all. The plot of the first film wasn’t complicated; it was a man on a mission for revenge, while the plot of this sequel can be best described as lean. The film builds on the first film’s wild premise without wasting any time on rehashing the rules; for all of the film’s merits, its trust in the audience to understand its universe’s functions is one of the more admirable. By expanding the mythology, the film becomes multi-layered, mainly as this whole secret society of assassins is irresistible, luxurious, sexy, and lethal. Director Chad Stahelski & writer Derek Kolstad bring you into this secret world where dangerous killers interact but they have strong moral codes. The idea of the Continental Hotel was awesome in the earlier film and they build on that in the sequel. They introduce memorable new characters and they brought back some of the best supporting characters from the original. The creative team did a good job figuring out what worked and what didn’t in the original and while I wouldn’t describe this film as complex, it provides enough of a story to help string together the fantastic action set-pieces. It’s so cool that pretty much anybody, any character, on the streets can be a potential assassin; you just never know who might launch at John Wick at any time. Once the film begins to deliver fans what they came to this film for in the first place, it literally seems like one drawn-out action sequence for about an hour straight. I found myself completely zoned into the screen throughout the second half of this film, which is superbly directed and some of the most fun I’ve had at the movies in a while. You can’t help but chuckle at the fact that our titular character is able to get out of certain scenarios, because there is just no possible way that one man can take down this many men with guns and walk away alive. That being said, if you can buy into superhero films as serious dramas in today’s day and age, then you can forgive a few ridiculous moments in this film. The film flirts with its own idiosyncrasies knowing full well maintaining the atmosphere is what makes the franchise unique. For example, rules are cited without explaining the full body of the source. Odd artifacts localized to a high ranking assassin will find the camera’s attention. In addition, the sequel is a far more cinematically complex film over the first in the series. The film explores the dichotomy of agency against the externalities in life. Wick constantly conforms to the rules of the assassin world despite a desire to break free. The dangers of breaking free are made explicitly known to the audience and Wick. As a result, the film’s plot is the rare action film which focuses on the awareness of limitations in one’s environment.

The story constantly finds humor in the juxtaposition of action to dialogue/scenario. An intense fight will cease in due part to some odd universal assassin code. A shootout occurs during a concert at one point early in the film. Wick shoots an adversary in the head to an ignorant audience’s entertainment. The cited moment gives the viewer a Meta moment to ponder their attraction to extreme violent imagery. As expected all the fighting scenes were choreographed wonderfully. Yes, this is every action fan’s wet-dream, to tell you the truth because you have a character who basically can use anything, whatever he gets his hands on, to kill. The choreography was tight, the gunfire was loud and explosive and fighting packed the requisite punch. So what you see is once again a mix of martial art and gunplay or gun-fu, and on top of that, you also get to see him use a car as weapon, for example. It keeps the formula nearly identical, adding more to its melee and shootout fun mainly as that is everything one loved from the first, now pouring abundantly. There is no shortage of surprises here, as the fight choreographies are some of the most complex I’ve seen on the big screen, definitely the most badass since ‘The Raid,’ kudos to the stunt coordinators and also to the actors themselves who are committed to making those sequences look and feel like the perfect bloody dance. Aside from the very cool amazing action sequence, the sound effects of this film was very good such as the sound of cars screeching, guns blazing and the voices heard during the heavy fight of John & Cassian (Common) sounded very original. The highlight is a sequence involving mirrors at a museum. Oh goodness is this spectacular work! Again, there’s not exactly story here, but there is a progression of events and how the characters move in this environment feels less like a rip-off of an action film style climax than a part homage and then partly doing something else (at times the way the director uses color is absorbing too, like out of the best parts of Skyfall). I could watch this sequence over and over for how assured the staging is, how we always know where the characters are or, if we don’t, it’s not for too long, and how visceral the action is maintained in this setting. The look and feel of the film is very much in line with the first. It is nice, vibrant colors that compliment the violence and chaos. My only complaint might sound ridiculous or as nit picking but the sequence involving Lawrence Fishburne’s character Bowery King was slow & kind of unnecessary. As for as performance goes, we all know that this is a character well suited to Keanu Reeves. He’s the strong-silent type; he’s an unstoppable force one moment and pretty vulnerable in the next. The quite actor transformed his usual persona into a role of one who, instead, takes extreme action. In extra- textual awareness, loss seemingly haunts the misunderstood actor. The solemn introspective nature of Reeves gives the character of Wick a believable sense of unchained rage. Frankly, John Wick fits Keanu like a glove into which he slips again and delivers some more solid work. Riccardo Scamarcio suffices as someone you can hate. Ruby Rose is awesome especially in the rare scene were you see a man and woman go toe to toe in action. Common plays his part well, so does Laurence Fishburne. It’s good to see Ian McShane in a bigger role this time. John Leguizamo, Claudia Gerini, Lance Reddick and the rest of the cast are likable. On the whole, ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ is the first true great action film of the year, with great direction, a fun screenplay, and action that seldom misfires, this hyper-violent piece of pulp action cinema is a treat to watch!